Efforts on to revive Pak-Afghan Joint Peace Commission

The Pak-Afghan Joint Peace Commission tasked to look at the prospects of dialogue with the Taliban is yet to initiate the process, as the reconciliation process was stalled after the assassination of former Afghan president and chairman Afghan High Peace Council Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani on September 20, 2011.
The high-level joint commission headed by Prime Minister of Pakistan Yousuf Raza Gilani and Afghan President Hamid Karzai and comprising military and intelligence chiefs from both sides was established in June 2011 to facilitate the reconciliation process in Afghanistan, which held its inaugural session on June 12, 2011. But the process was stalled in September last year following the tragic assassination of Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani. Afghan authorities blamed Haqqani Network for Rabbani's killing that led to deterioration of mutual relations and deferment of the peace process.
According to diplomatic sources efforts are underway to revive the high-level joint commission when Taliban announced to open their office in Qatar aimed at holding direct talks with the United States. But the efforts initiated by Islamabad are yet to bear fruits, they added.
When approached Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said no date has yet been finalised for the meeting of the joint commission. He, however, said that Pakistan always wanted and wishful of peace and stability in Afghanistan. When asked whether he was optimistic that the process would resume in the near future, Basit said that the work of joint commission was important to achieve the shared objective. "We hope the commission will be able to fulfil its mandate," he opined.
Pakistan has responded cautiously to the opening of Taliban's office in Qatar, the move believed to lessen Islamabad's influence over the Afghan insurgents. "We are convinced that peace and stability in Afghanistan will remain elusive without 'genuine' reconciliation and, then, it is for Afghans themselves to steer this process and lead it to its logical conclusion. To this end, the people of Afghanistan can always count on Pakistan's support," the Foreign Office spokesman had told a recent weekly press briefing. Meanwhile, the Bilateral Joint Economic Commission of the two countries would hold its 8th session at the level of Finance Ministers in Islamabad in the third week of January 2012 to review bilateral economic co-operation.